Getting to Know Your Students

I believe that education is fundamentally a communal endeavor.* As such, there is a burden placed on educators to foster a community of learning, a shared space where we can come to understand. (I should note that my thinking about this has been deeply influenced by Parker J. Palmer. I highly recommend his book The Courage to Teach.) And maybe it seems easy and obvious how we might go about forming that kind of community of learning in a face-to-face classroom...but how can I do this in a distance learning setting?? I definitely hear this question from many teachers who are new to teaching in the online environment!

Two comments off the bat in response to this wondering:

1. I don't think it's actually all that easy or all that obvious how to create a community of learning in a face-to-face classroom situation. Some people seem to be able to do this rather naturally, but for most of us, we actually spend a lot of time, and thought, and planning, and preparation for different kinds of activities and classroom arrangements that can make this happen. And I don't think that the online environment is all that different in this regard: we still need to plan and prepare for this relationship-building to happen!

2. Often, when I hear educators wondering this, it's phrased to imply something along the lines of, "You can't really get to know someone online!" But I would like to push forward on this idea; I think you definitely can get to know people in an online-only environment. Just ask anyone who has met their spouse online! Yes, yes...there comes a point where that relationship has to transfer to a face-to-face relationship, I know. But that's minimizing the fact that you definitely can build a relationship through self-disclosure and shared experience. 

And there, I think, is the key for getting to know your students and developing relationships: self-disclosure, and shared experience.

In this post, I'd like to focus in on self-disclosure a bit. In a future post (or maybe multiple posts) I'll share some ideas for how I create collaborative learning experiences that can result in shared experiences that help to strengthen the learning community. But those kinds of experiences have to be built on a beginning relationship...and that relationship has to start somewhere.

So how to get students to share things about themselves?

Well, there are a few considerations here. First off, I want to encourage you to follow the Golden Rule for Distance Teaching: Never ask your students to do something you would be uncomfortable doing yourself. In this case, I think it's important to model for your students the kind of self-disclosure you're asking of them. In other words, however you ask students to share about themselves...you go first! :-)

If you're concerned about this kind of self-disclosure, I'd encourage you to read this blog post by David Goobler: The Pedagogical Power of Opening Up. It's short and accessible, and I appreciate the advice he gives instructors here about why we should share about ourselves.

Next thing to consider: what do you want to know? And why do you want to know it? I typically invite students to share things about their personal life, but I try not to require them to share things that don't have relevance on what we are doing in class. That said, knowing a bit about who they are, where they are from, what they love, things they like to do, etc. can help me tailor learning experiences to their strengths and interests.

Here are a few things I have done to get to know my students:

• A few semesters ago, I started using a Google Doc class roster that students fill in for themselves at their level of comfort. I ask them to share a photo of themselves, if they feel comfortable doing so, and include a few bits of information. (For example, if they are graduate students in our Master of Education program, knowing what subjects or grade levels they teach/coach can be very helpful for me, as well as their locations--since I often have students in different time zones.) 
• I often ask students to create a video introduction of themselves. (Either using Flipgrid or recording a video and uploading it to YouTube.) I like this approach because it allows us to hear our classmates in their own voice and to put faces with names. (I also like to use this as an informal way to gauge my students' tech savvy.) 
• And...I should note that I sometimes just have students write a brief personal introduction in a discussion forum in the first week of the class. This is not a bad way to go, of course! But I like to get them a little more actively and creatively involved.

As for prompts, here are a few I've used before:

• Tell us who you are, where you're from, something you love, and what you're looking forward to in this class.
• I like this one because it is simple, straightforward, and relatively non-threatening. This is a nice general-purpose introduction with a low bar for entry.
• Share 3-5 objects with us that tell us something about you. 
• If you do this one, model it! I use some of the kitsch I have sitting on my desk, including a family photo, a plastic dinosaur, an "Easy Button" from Staples, and a Bob Ross coffee mug. (You know, the essentials.) :-)
• What's your favorite book? Why did you choose that book to share with us? 
• Often I've had students who say they can't choose just one, and wind up sharing 3-5 books that tell different things about them.
• If you were a superhero, what would be your superhero name, and what would be your superpower? Tell us why! 
• Again, model this! As a superhero, I am "The Technopath" with the power to wave my hand at misbehaving technological tools and make them magically work. This gives me the opportunity to share about my background as a technology director, and my doctoral work in EdTech, and how I often have so many of my own woes with technology and have to learn how to solve my own problems, and then use that knowledge to help others.
• Create a playlist of 4-6 songs to introduce yourself to us. (I invite them to actually create the playlist using Spotify or YouTube.)
• This is a fun one to model, and it really gives you a sense of your students too! And, somewhat awkwardly, I now have "The Dave Mulder Playlist" in my Spotify library, which includes music by Michael W. Smith, U2, Nirvana, Jars of Clay, Rend Collective, and Judah & the Lion.
• If I'm having students introduce themselves to a small group online, a prompt I've used is "Figure out why Mulder has put you together as a group." 
• The secret? I usually make the groups randomly...so they wind up sharing quite a bit about themselves with the group to get to try and figure out why I might have grouped them this way! :-)

Image by Tamarcus Brown via Unsplash

Does this all magically result in an incredible classroom community? Umm...no. I wish it were that simple! But I will say that making intentional space to invite students to share and help me get to know them--and sharing about myself so students can get to know me has made a big difference in the "feel" of my online courses. I'm still working on this, obviously. But these are, I think, steps in the right direction for creating a community of learners.

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(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)

* I suppose I could get really philosophical and contrast "education" and "learning"--learning can certainly be individual...but that is missing the point what this post is really all about. :-) Suffice to say that I think there is a formalized, interactive, interpersonal nature to education that makes it different than learning.